You have been accepted for an experiment: you must stay in a room with nothing but bed/toilet/food/water and no human contact for one month. If you succeed for the whole month without giving up, you get $5,000,000. Do you accept? And what are your coping strategies to avoid mental breakdown?

My routine for the past who-knows how many years have mostly involved computers and game consoles, with generous seasonings of reading and writing thrown in.

To basically throw all that away and leave me at the mercy of a well-stocked fridge, full of food and water throughout the entire month (Fair assumption?) could be a disastrous thing waiting to happen.

I mean, the bed and toilet I can gather. Say a single or king single to fit my frame, and the toilet just a standard white bowl with water to do one’s business. All fine and dandy. I’d also think the water would sound straightforward too; either tap, filtered, bottled or whatever.

I've done at least a couple of weeks, maybe even a month, of exactly this, as have many people with severe depression. You voluntarily isolate yourself and little things like basic hygiene and food become almost irrelevant.

Edit: re stimulation, you have no focus - there is nothing you can do. You can't concentrate enough to listen to music, much less watch TV or read.

So you never once during that time read anything, wrote anything, listened to anything, watched anything, saw sunlight, or breathed fresh air? I have no doubt people with severe depression voluntarily isolate themselves, but not to the degree that OP is describing.

This question is posted quite frequently and reddit is an absolute hive of depression. The people suffering from it need to cling to some sort of power, so they act like they are already prepared for that. Don't believe the hype.

I'm bipolar, and depression is not in any way empowering. Yay, in this hypothetical situation I would have an advantage. That makes up for not being able to work, have friends or a normal life for months at a time.

For what it's worth, I am now on a medication that seems to be working and am no longer getting periods of severe depression or mania, so my skin is hopefully out of the game. It's still something that was a major and unpleasant part of my life.

Sleep for as long as possible. And I'm guessing food is in unlimited supply, maybe diverse kinds of food as well. So comfort eat as my source of pleasure. Maybe exercise as well, that releases endorphins.

I'd remind myself in the hard times I was providing for my kids. Day to day I would create a schedule of exercise, eating, and I guess bathing in a sink? Some days I'd challenge myself to stupid stuff, like making a knife to give myself a shitty new hairdo, or write stories on the walls with food.

That's because Vsauce is a VERY extroverted person. He needs human contact otherwise his brain goes into meltdown.An anti-social person on the other hand, someone who feels drained and irritated whenever more than three people are present in the same room (like me)? Piece of cake.

Social isolation I could handle easily. That's basically the majority of my adult life. But having nothing to see myself occupied. No console, no Netflix, no books, no internet. Nope, that I could not do.

I have to keep my mind as occupied as possible else I dwell on things too much and work myself into depression and disappear down a rabbit hole.

I think you're severely underestimating the impact 1 month could have on your mental health. Convicts who've spent that time in solitary confinement would tell you it's a fucking hellhole.

VSauce actually did a fantastic episode on this. Mind you, it's 30 minutes long, but it truly is a great watch.

TL;DW. He only spends 3 days in a booth with no stimuli whatsoever and after about 45-50 hours IIRC he thinks his time should be up. For the last 10 hours he starts to lose cognitive skills and cannot differentiate between dream and reality. 1 month would seriously fuck you up.